Meri Toivanen (b. 1996, Finland), graduated with a masters degree in fine arts painting from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp in 2022. She has taken part in group and duo exhibitions in Belgium, Luxembourg and Finland. Toivanen received the Young Artist Grant by the Finnish Art Society in 2020. She is the ex-aequo winner of Marianne van Vyve Prize 2022, and winner of the Prize of the Drawing Teachers in 2021 and 2022.
Toivanens semi-monochromatic paintings, on diffused hues of green, explore the limits of figuration. Drawing on Finnish film history as her referential inventory, her recent work centres around board games and gameplay as a symbol for power relations and struggles.